On Drugs

I never voluntarily did drugs, unless you count caffeine. I never was drunk in my life. I was sometimes stoned outta my mind being in a room of weed smokers and it's possible someone spilled something in my drink at parties, but in both cases, it didn't make me feel weirder than usual. There were two main reasons for this. The first was I always assumed I might like drugs just a little bit too much, and become easily addicted. The other was the following. Some take drugs for entertainment. Not interesting to me. But what is interesting is that drugs are used in an attempt to gain enlightenment and wisdom. Now this never clicked with me. Reaching enlightenment not by contemplation, but by doing a tangible, direct thing as buying a pill and swallowing it. That seems just so illogical to me. Now you might say, you can get knowledge by reading a book and that's a tangible thing too. But it's not, really. The book and the bed you sit in is not intellectual, but the content of the book you read is intellectual. While the drug is very physical.
To further illustrate this; if people could get knowledge and enlightenment with drugs, a restrictive government for example could set up a powerful anti-drug police force, maybe even using extreme measures, stopping people from taking drugs, and blocking them from gaining enlightenment this way! This is just so much non-sense. Because there is no way a government could ever block the spread of true knowledge. Therefore, the true knowledge could not be spread using drugs.
I re-read the texts by Hakim Bey a while ago. He is pro-drugs and actually addresses this point. He claims that the very nature of psychedelic drugs is that they evade government control. Somehow they always get spread.
Interesting idea. If that's true I could've tried drugs all these years. No I won't, just kidding.
I will not believe you can get a very profound insight by doing a very tangible thing such as reaching out, taking a pill, putting it in your mouth and swallowing it. Instead of contemplating. At least not without paying a heavy price. Because people do assume they got important knowledge by drugs. And this knowledge can get them places; becoming a rockstar, rich, whatever, or getting some things they want in life. But it doesn't help them with their intellectual development; at least not to the full extent. And that's what really matters.
Of course I don't condemn use of drugs or drug users, even if they're just doing it for entertainment.
And then there is the shamanic and religious use of drugs, which *could* be useful.

To further explain my point: how do you gain knowledge? By using your mind, reason, logic, your intellect. If someone told you: you will gain knowledge (profound knowledge) by taking a hammer and hitting a nail, or by picking up a stone and throwing it, you would say: nonsense. But that's what taking a drug is: not using your intellect, but doing a physical action: reaching with your hand, grabbing an object, putting it inside your mouth and swallowing it. How could you gain an important insight by this?